Oh Brother (Completed)

Feast or Famine

I'm going to die.

            The moment I had heard my mother's heart monitor flatline I had wanted no more than to join her. I had tried to starve myself, cutting, walking through oncoming cars, but had always backed out of it. Because that wasn't what my mother would have wanted. She wouldn't want me killing myself, not living the life she'd always prayed I'd have.

            But as I tried to break through the surface of the rushing waters, my thought was on one person.

            Hudson.

            Hudson, who I'd always thought of as the bastard child of the family. He wasn't. He actually had a heart, we had shared a moment on these surfboards, even if it was a short one. My mother might be gone, but his is still back at home waiting for him, and I was going to make sure he got back to her.

            "Hudson!" I gasped as I broke the surface, grasping at the surfboard. I knew that the sharks would come for me first. I was the one bleeding, I was the one that they'd swam this far out to get. I felt something brush against my leg and screamed, only to be pushed upward and on top of my surfboard. I gasped, rolling on to my side to meet my brother's striking blue eyes just as a agonizing look entered them, and an even louder scream tore through the night.

            "Hudson!" I cried, taking the empty surfboard from beside me and bringing it around for him to hoist himself up on to. "Hudson, come on!"

            I knew it was no use. That look on his face. The sharks being in the water. That could only mean one thing. He'd been bitten.

            "Go!" He finally screamed, his hands continuously slipping from the board every time he tried to get a grip. "Get out of here, Arianna. Get back to shore!"

            I shook my head, wrapping my hands around his biceps and trying to help him. "No! I'm not leaving without you, Hudson! My brothers need you! Your mother needs you! I need you! You have to help me. You have to try!"

            Those words must have triggered the last bit of strength he had, because he grabbed on to his surfboard, letting out another scream before he swung himself on to the surfboard. I caught it before it could tip sideways and throw him back into the water. I connected the boards as they had been before, creating a makeshift platform, and looked down at his leg. I immediately wished I hadn't. Blood. There was blood everywhere, spraying in every direction and soaking the board. He was crying, his entire body shaking as his hand found mine, his blue eyes full of so much agony I started screaming for help again.

            I took the bloody cloth off my foot and threw it into the water, hoping it'd draw the attention away from us, if only for a few minutes. Hudson grabbed at my forearm and rested his head on my lap, still shaking, eyes occasionally drifting downward toward his leg.

            Then we were blinded by headlights. Bright lights that left floaters in my vision for a good ten minutes after they appeared. It was some sort of medic boat; something I hadn't seen during training, but made sense it existed. It wasn't any bigger than a sail boat, but looked to be a bit sturdier. Unfortunately they were moving at a snails pace, likely because it would cause more issues with the sharks being directly under us. I caught sight of Cady leaning over the edge, cheeks stained with tears, but she immediately brought the back of her hand to her mouth when she spotted us.

            "Get him!" I called to them as they slowed the boat to a stop as close to us as they could get. "Get Hudson!"

            A couple male medics moved to the edge, and with a little bit of nudging and lifting on my side, they were able to get him moved to the boat. Cady then reached out for me, one of the medics joining her a second later. I leaned off the edge of the surfboard, nearly falling into the water again. I would have if the man didn't catch under my arms and take me into his arms before setting me down on the boat. I collapsed beside Hudson, Cady opposite of me, but he was fading in and out. Every time he stirred he'd start screaming, his body jerking in every direction as if he were having a seizure. I began to pull away, but he caught my wrist and very coherently said, "Don't you dare leave me."